Weston Land Proves Costly For Water Board

South Florida water managers are going to pay dearly -- nearly $300,000 an acre -- for a chunk of open space in Weston but said the sky-high price could not be avoided.

The South Florida Water Management District board sounded pained by the price -- $33 million for 113 acres of real estate that includes a family-owned asphalt-making plant, rock-mining operation, buildings and a plant nursery.

But after a few minutes of discussion, board members agreed, 5-0, to pay the sum for land they grabbed last March. It stands in the heart of a swath of property the agency intends to turn into a reservoir to help restore the Everglades.

District officials said they had to pay so steep a tab for the property -- north of Griffin Road, east of U.S 27 and west of South Post Road -- because it is in development-hot Weston. And, they said, they had to buy heavy industry this time too, not vacant land with trees or marsh.

The price is triple the $90,000 an acre the district has paid for its cheapest Weston land to date, "but there is no other area that would have sufficed" for the reservoir, said Ruth Clements, district deputy director of land acquisition.

The businesses on the 113-acre tract include the 35-year-old Weekley Asphalt Paving Inc., owned by three brothers, and other family ventures: a mine that sold rock to the state for roadway construction and a nursery with a lot of trees and plants in the ground, according to district officials.

The deal so far appears to be the highest per-acre price paid thus far by the water district for land it is steadily amassing to mount an $8.4 billion project to improve the Everglades' flagging health, Clements said.

"We have not run across anything more expensive," she said. Board members, who oversee major land deals for the Everglades, were concerned that the agency got stuck buying out such a high-cost business. The $33 million payment is a settlement agreement to an inverse condemnation lawsuit that a bunch of property owners in Weston filed against the water district after their land was targeted for purchase.

"It strikes me: Why in the world are we doing this?" said board member Patrick Gleason.

But he quickly noted that the district already has acquired 95 percent of the land it needs in Weston to build the reservoir and could not really turn back.

Clements called the deal a win-win. The Weekley family may have to pay $337,000 an acre to move their business onto another parcel nearby, Clements said. And the settlement avoids a condemnation hearing where you're tossing the dice on what the property is going to be worth," she said.

So far the district owns or controls about 1,700 acres around the asphalt plant, in an area dubbed Cell 11, said Max Day, a district senior supervising engineer.

"Unfortunately there was no other land around" to take instead of the Weekley property, Clements said.

The asphalt plant land is a key piece of a proposed four-feet deep reservoir that would stop the pumping of polluted storm water from southwest Broward County into central Everglades west of Weston. That phosphorus-laden runoff, instead of shooting out the west end of the C-11 canal, would be diverted to the reservoir for treatment.

A federal court earlier this year ruled that the district could not continue to send the dirty C-11 water into the Everglades without a federal pollution-control permit, which it lacks. The district is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the issue.

Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6625.